Traktor Kontrol X1 review part one
By Paul Dakeyne
| Posted in DJ
Traktor Kontrol X1 news began to leak out back in October last year, and excitement levels within the digital DJ community quickly hit fever pitch. Native Instruments’ flagship Traktor Pro software had, up until then, a variety of third-party control options available but no dedicated hardware from the manufacturer itself. A leaked live video of Traktor stalwart Ritchie Hawtin and a subsequent low key London premiere (filmed by DV247 and blogged here) set the anticipation bar higher and speculative tongues wagging on DJ Forums worldwide.
Now the history lesson is over and at last we can find out what this eagerly awaited piece of hardware is like to use in real life. The unit itself arrived for review with its optional extra, the X1 carry-case. This is a well made, sturdy though padded protective/transport solution which doubles up as a stand for the X1 itself to sit at mixer/deck height level. It has four tough, wide rubber feet beneath to make sure the unit stays put under DJ pressure in the live environment.
The top operational panel of the X1 contains eight continuous knobs (with a central position ‘confirm’ click), four large encoder dials that are reassuringly ratcheted with a push down click selector, and 30 dual-function buttons. They all ‘feel’ good. The knobs flow smoothly at the fingertips and, made of the same high quality ‘grip factor’ rubber, the main select dials are solid and satisfying in use. The identical 30 buttons are sized correctly (not too big, not too small), respond very well to gentle or firm use, give ‘good click’ (!) and illuminate in various colours for night-time club or studio session use. The controller operates as part of a DVS system (using time-coded vinyl or CD) or in laptop mode where the X1 is the sole controller.
If you have one of the latest two versions of Traktor (Pro or Duo) already, the X1 is literally ‘plug and play’. The unit is supplied with a free version of Traktor LE (limited to two deck usage and minimal, basic effects) but for my review, I was running it with Traktor Pro. One thing that should be noted though, is that the mapping template for the Traktor software will only work ‘out of the box’ with versions 1.2.3 upwards (I was running an earlier version and all I got upon connection was a 2 second light show then nothing). An update via the NI Service Centre online system was necessary for me but once that was done, all was well. Incidentally, the default control assignments for the supplied Traktor template can be customised by the user but as I found, and as other DJs have confirmed, nothing needed to be changed.
The Traktor Kontrol X1 layout is sensibly arranged into four specific areas: Effects, Browse/Load, Loop and Transport. The previously mentioned dual function buttons enter their secondary mode by simply pressing the central ‘shift’ button. This can be a bit fiddly at first, but after an hour or so of constant use, it does become second nature.
From the top of the unit, the Effects section dominates the panel and shows the level of importance that Native Instruments has placed on expressive effects manipulation. In single fx mode, the top knob controls the wet and dry mix, with the three below handling sub-parameter adjustments. By pressing shift, the wet/dry knob doubles up as a selector for scrolling through Traktor Pro’s list of 28 comprehensive, powerful effects. Holding shift again and pressing buttons one, two or three will access a selection of preassigned effects, namely ‘beatmasher’, ‘delay’ and ‘delay T3′ in my review scenario. This is a bit confusing as the buttons themselves are labeled ‘delay’, ‘reverb’ and ‘filter’, which I am guessing will be what appears when used with the supplied Traktor LE.
Traktor Pro’s secondary effects ‘chained’ mode brings a slightly different functionality to the effects one, two and three knobs, where they subsequently handle the volume level of each individual stacked effect. Each of the two virtual decks addressed by the hardware can be engaged to punch in or out of either of the two active single or chained effects racks. It’s a user choice as to whether these would be used to ‘engage’ effects quickly or whether it would be preferable to use the FX1 ‘on’ button or the wet/dry knob to do the same job.
In tomorrows part two of this Traktor Kontrol X1 review, I’ll be looking further at its track browse, loop and transport functionality and seeing how it performs in a live DJ mix set.
Tags: Controller, DJ Gear, Traktor Kontrol X1, traktor pro